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Thursday, 29 July 2010
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| Carnival Barcelona 2010 |
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 Photo byCarlos Lorenzo with kind permission. Click for more Barcelona carnival photos
Carnivals are very popular all over Spain and Barcelona is no exception. In Catalan the Carnival is called "Carnestoltes." Both the Barcelona Carnival 2010 and the Sitges Carnival 2010 take place in February. Barcelona celebrates from Thursday 11th February to Wednesday 17th February 2010. Sitges, a popular holiday resort town, south of Barcelona, also celebrates carnaval from 11th to 25th February in a wonderfully extravagant style, thanks also to the large gay community in Sitges. Here are some interesting Barcelona Carneval carnaval facts, traditions and links.   Main BCN carnaval parade - Grand Rua - is on Sat 13th February 2010 at 20.00 Events and big days of the Carnival in Sitges . Find party shops and fancy dress costume shops in BarcelonaBarcelona Carnaval days - “Dijous Gras” – “Fat Thursday” - “Jueves Ladero” The general theme of a a carnival is of course to eat, drink, dance and generally have a great time. In Spain the festivities start on “Fat Thursday” when you start to stuff yourself during Carnaval in preparation for the fasting period of Lent, which begins after the Carneval officially ends. The markets of Barcelona celebrate this day with many food events and competitions all over Barcelona. The main character of the Spanish Carnevals is el “Rei Carnestoltes,” which means” The Carnival King” or “Rey Carnaval” in Spanish List of Barcelona food markets Carnaval activities at Barcelona food markets The King makes his arrival on “Dijous Gras” – “Jueves Ladero” or Fat Thursday (similar to Shrove Tuesday in English) His symbolic role is to carry all the sins of power, and take responsibility for all the bad things that occurred throughout the year. On the last day of Carnival, the carnival king’s will is read out in public, he is condemned and he is burnt, signalling the beginning of abig feast. His sad death marks the end of the carnival with funeral corteges complete with grieving widows in black, and other events in his honour all over the city. Barcelona Carnaval programme - La Grand Rua de Carnaval - (the Carneval Parade) The high point of the Barcelona Carnival is La Grand Rua de Carnaval - the big parade. The Gran Rua is a big parade of decorated carneval floats and carnival groups dancing their way down the carneval route. It is similar (though nowhere near as big) to the Carneval in Rio. In 2010 it takes place on Avinguda Parallel, which is the street between neighbourhoods of Poble Sec and Raval in Barcelona. More than 2000 people and 34 carnaval groups from many different barrios of Barcelona will take part in the parade. The exact starting point of the Grand Rua is on Avinguda Parallel by "Jardins de les Tres Xemeneies" - Three Chimneys gardens, which is the plaza by the three tall chimneys. The route is about 1.2 km long and finishes at the junction of Avinguda Parallel and the street Tamarit. You can see the route below. Route Barcelona La Gran Rua de la Ciutat 2010 The Gran Rua is a big parade of decorated carneval floats and carnival groups dancing their way down the carneval route. It is similar (though nowhere near as big) to the Carneval in Rio. Many different groups usually take part in the procession with more than 1,500 people in the parada as active participants. Each year a new official song for the carnaval is created. In 2009 there were around 50 different Carvneval groups with 2500 active participants to the delight of the estimated 35.000 spectators lining the Carneval route. Photos from Barcelona Carnaval 2008 Barcelona Carnaval programme - General activities Most of the activities during the Barcelona Carnaval are in the barrios (neighbourhoods) of Barcelona - especially in the food markets. Each barrio organizes their own parades and festivities, so keep your eyes open for posters advertising Carnaval events in your area. The activities are usually centred around the civic centres and the food markets in each district of Barcelona. Carneval activities in Barcelona usually include parades, lots of inventives competitions for the children, like fancy dress competitions and food and cooking competitions with prizes for everyone. The markets of Barcelona usually have activities during the carnival period for the children and food competitions on “Dijous Gras” Fat Thursday. Among the activities you will always find some that celebrate the traditions of eating eggs, usually in the form of tortilla (omelette) cooking and tasting competitions. And a “botifarrada,” where everyone eats botifarra (Catalan sausage) to their hearts content. Apart from tortillas and botifarra, sardines are the other main ingredient in Catalan carnival tradition and there are many sardine tasting events. It is also tradition that the organization of the Mercats de Barcelona award the best decorated stalls and shops in each market the traditional and much coveted award called "Pebrot d'Or" – “Pimiento de Oro” - Golden Pepper. Barcelona Carnaval programme - End of Barcelona Carneval “Enterrament de la sardine” – Burying the Sardine. The Barcelona Carnival usually ends on Ash Wednesday, “el Miércoles de Ceniza. The ending is celebrated with the traditional the “Enterrament de la Sardina”, literally “burying the sardine”, which, in theory, marks the end of the carnival. But there are activities after the 6th too like the Ravalstoltada in the Raval and the Carnavalada in Barceloneta Official Barcelona Carneval website. Find markets of Barcelona websites and locations. Find civic centres in Barcelona where many carnaval activities take place Listen to official 2010 Barcelona carnaval "rumba" song Book Secure Hotels in Barcelona for Barcelona Carnival 2010 Book Secure Apartments in Barcelona Official Sitges tourism site with Sitges Carneval information and programme Official Sitges Carnaval website (only in Catalan)Origin of Carnival Name The origin of the name Carnival has is disputed and there are explanations. The most popular one is that the word comes from Italian “carne levare” which in turn is derived from the Latin words “caro” meaning flesh or meat, and “vale” meaning goodbye or farewell. So "Carnival" means literally "Goodbye to meat" which makes sense as the Carvival falls before Lent which is a 40 day and night period of fasting and in olden days Catholics were forbidden to eat meat during Lent Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, “el Miércoles de Ceniza” and lasts 40 days. This is a Christian tradition of preparing for Easter by giving the soul a good spring cleaning before Easter is celebrated. The Catalans particularly relish celebrating carnaval - not least because it was forbidden to celebrate carnival in Barcelona between 1936 and 1980 under the rule of dictator Franco. |
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